Applying nail color or designs to fingernails to obtain a desired art effect has long been a manual task involving considerable time and skill when applied by either the recipient, or a nail salon technician. Currently, self-application is the most common practice of applying color or artwork to nails. With practice, single color self-application, or simple multiple color self-application can result in satisfactory results. However, for detailed and/or high quality artwork, a skilled nail salon technician is often required. Nail salons often employ local art students for their talents when a clientele demands a high degree of nail design artistry. Frequently, however, nail salons either are unable to or choose not to retain on their staff personnel skilled in fingernail art application.
Fingernail and thumbnail color and design application becomes increasingly labor and time intensive as the artwork becomes more intricate. A base coat is usually applied before the nail technician applies any color or artwork. The technician and the client must wait for this base coat to dry before proceeding with further decoration. Once the base coat dries, a commonly used laquer based nail polish can be applied by a brush set into the cap of the nail polish bottle. Of course, if the client desires more than a simple single color, the technician may use many different bottles and brushes in order to create a finished product to suit the client's tastes. The most intricate designs require that an artist use an airbrush. Such a finished product would be difficult if not impossible to achieve for a person of average artistic skills, especially when considering that the quality of the design would vary dramatically when such a person would attempt to apply the design at an awkward angle.
There are several further disadvantages to the manual application of nail colors and designs. For example, application by hand is time intensive. Prolonged exposure to many open bottles of lacquer based nail polishes in a salon environment may cause health related problems to the nail technician, such as respiratory and/or ocular irritation. Furthermore, if a person desires artistic designs on their nails, such application is limited by that person's or a nail salon technician's artistic abilities.
It is, therefore, an objective of the present invention to provide an automated system and method to apply artwork comprised of colors and/or designs directly to the fingernails of a user's hand.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide computer media catalogues of plural colors and designs so a customer can select artwork which is then applied through the automated system and method.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a color applicator that is computer controlled to provide selected artwork substantially simultaneously to a plurality of the user's fingernails.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a fingermold cooperable with a color applicator to hold the fingernails of the user in a preferred art coating position, the applicator not being operable unless the mold is in the preferred art coating position.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a video monitor to allow the user to view the artwork as it is being applied to the fingernails.